Diasporas, Development and Peacemaking in the Horn of Africa (Africa Now)

Diasporas, Development and Peacemaking in the Horn of Africa (Africa Now)

Language: English

Pages: 248

ISBN: 1783600977

Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub

Exiled populations, i.e. diaspora communities, hold a strong stake in the fate of their countries of origin. In a world becoming ever more interconnected, they engage in 'long-distance politics' towards their homelands, send financial remittances and support social development in their communities of origin. Transnational diaspora networks have thus become global forces shaping the relationship between countries, regions and continents.

This important intervention, written by scholars working at the cutting edge of diaspora and conflict, challenges the conventional wisdom that diaspora are all too often warmongers, their time abroad causing them to become more militant in their engagement with local affairs. Rather, they can and should be a force for good in bringing peace to their home countries.

Featuring in-depth case studies from the Horn of Africa - including Somalia and Ethiopia - this volume presents an essential re-thinking of a key issue in African politics and development.

management and administration, showing that partnership can entail partial as well as full forms of participation. Concluded in 2008, the Diaspora Partnership Programme of CARE and NedSom provided this Somali diaspora association with an opportunity to implement a relatively large-scale project, and to access and manage a substantial grant coming from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and build its own track record as a professional development organization. Staff recruitment processes and

Hoeffler 2004: 575). The discussion about the Somaliland diaspora unfolds against the backdrop of the absence of formal bilateral or multilateral engagement with (unrecognized) Somaliland and the relative weakness of its state institutions.4 This chapter looks at investments of the diaspora in the economic and educational sector in Somaliland. We argue that economic and educational developments lay at the heart of the ongoing ‘second phase’ of more sustainable peacebuilding in Somaliland. The

structure (POS) approach, which has been criticized for being static owing to too much focus on institutional factors. The analysis shows that while Somalis in both countries tend to respond to what is available in terms of ‘opportunities’, they are not passive agents, as they put forth their own strategies in engaging with institutional actors at different levels. Despite different contextual opportunities present in Italy and Finland, numerous similarities can be found. The chapter thus offers

has recently come under the strong grip of government, multinational corporations and other powerful economic players (Feyissa 2011). The heavy-handedness towards alternative Islamic organizations on the part of the Mejlis and the government has left the diaspora as one of the few autonomous Islamic voices to speak for Muslim rights in Ethiopia. The April 2007 Muslim diaspora delegation to Ethiopia consisted of nine members of whom four came from the USA, three from Europe, one from Canada, and

areas proscribed for ‘foreign’ and ‘Ethiopian resident’ organizations (in such fields as governance, conflict resolution, democracy, human rights, etc.) are not within its purview. Moreover, the organization’s close links with the TPLF are likely to help it weather whatever temporary setbacks the new legislation might entail. It is worth noting that TDA’s closeness to the locus of power is demonstrated in several ways, such as the financial, material/infrastructural support it receives from state